Lingaa

If it's a project featuring one of the biggest superstars of Indian film industry eagerly awaited by his huge fan following in the south (coming after a long gap of three years ignoring the animated KOCHADAIYAAN), then its nothing less than a big cinematic festival in that specific region celebrating the event in an unbelievable style, not seen even in the case of biggest Hindi film stars to be honest.

However if the same film releases in its dub format in Hindi then it struggles to find viewers even in its very first show despite all the hype and publicity received. And I was really surprised to have this contradictory experience this Friday, when the theater owners told me that you will have to wait for a while as we need more tickets to be sold in order to run its first show as scheduled. Fortunately about 12- 15 people did come asking for LINGAA and I thankfully got to see it as desired in its dubbed version.

Moving on to the film, it has everything required for a Rajinikanth project supporting his larger than life image of both a superstar as well as a socially active person. But sadly the content has nothing fresh to say and gives you the same old feeling of watching a complete masala flick of the 80s with ample dosage of heroism, patriotism and emotional drama written around the superstar. In other words, LINGAA once again offers that standard mix of many typical sub-plots put together including a petty group of thieves, a casual heist, a romantic news reporter, the village link, an emotional flashback with the period theme, references of British rule and their brutality, a rich maharaja turning into a savior, an important dam built by him alone, misunderstandings being created, love affairs thrown in to fill the space and then a poor climax with some mediocre action heading towards a happy ending.

The dialogues are specifically written asking for claps and whistles in the theater, whereas few early songs are just added into the script like a five minutes relief item or a musical advertisement as usual. Beginning with all below average sequences, the narration goes into a long (nearly 100 minutes) flashback hindering the pace severely. And returning to the present you just have the routine end-fight to see, shot hurriedly with some mediocre special effects, strangely in a Rajinikanth film. Probably the length has something to do with the viewers phenomenal love for their icon, forcing the makers to give them more. But having nothing fresh to say in its nearly three hours, LINGAA struggles hard to make an impression and remains just an average film with the only saving grace being the Superstar.

Mentioning its plus points, the film largely works in its emotional or confrontation scenes alone and fails to deliver anything great when it comes to the basic storyline, songs, background score and performances. Where the action impresses in its early train sequence, it does exactly the opposite in the climax fight. Cinematography and Sabu Cyril's art direction visibly gives the film its much required support but A. R. Rahman's musical score remains the biggest disappointment undeniably. The master composes a very ordinary soundtrack for such a big venture and it was even more surprising to see the name of Gulzar behind some of its weird lyrics like "Mona Gasolina" and more.

Performance wise, Rajinikanth does manage to deliver a towering act as the generous Maharaja, but doesn't have anything novel to offer as the young thief (he has a double role in the film). Sonakshi Sinha does it well and is more appealing in her controlled act in the later reels. Anushka is charming as far as looks are concerned but gets to play a completely artificial character in the film. Plus the enormous supporting cast mostly comes up with all average acts as required in its flashback sequences.

In short, it's a project featuring one of India's biggest superstar, but again has the same predictable story to tell where the lead character first gets maligned and thrown out of the village only to regain his lost respect and image as the truth gets revealed with a hugely disappointing climax. Honestly we have seen this many times before since the last century and now actually wish to see something more innovative, path breaking and unexpectedly impressive when it comes to names such as Rajinikanth. Hope our Thalaivaa will deliver the same in his next venture rising above the routine soon.

Watched Lingaa Here is my take.In short the movie showed up lots of flaws as a crash project mega budget movie. Direction I would say 3/10 didn't expect this from Ravi Kumar. Superstar in the flash back portions rocked with his calm and polite acting. The starting 30 mins of the movie I felt really boring and dragging. Introduction song of super star showed too much efforts by Rajini to dance along with the foreigners. But watching the song I felt that he can stop acting as hero and move on doing roles like Big B. VFX was so poor in the movie. Our heroines looked almost alike in their built were just used as dolls nothing much to do. Songs of ARR was disappointing. Except 2 OK kind of duets. Not his best. Overall treat for those who waited long for seeing his presence on screen. But I wouldn't buy superstar's magic in this movie this time -Reviewed by Balachandran Sivakumar

Its been 4 years since people saw a live action movie from Thalaivar and of course the expectations will be high when he joined hands with K.S.Ravikumar. The duo has almost given a pukka movie this time. Thalaivar fans will almost love the movie in which Thalaivar's charisma and style carries the movie on its shoulder.

Positives: Thalaivar! He is a big plus in this movie. No one could have done this role. People wont accept any other person in this role. As Lingaa, he brings in never seen charisma and his usual style at ease. As Raja Lingeaswaran, he brings in the ambitious thoughts of an anger Indian who wants to do something for his country.

Sonakshi Sinha - She proved language is no bar. Very wonderful depiction of a young naughty local village girl. She is a very big plus indeed.

Indianea vaa song will be loved by everyone for its picturization, the story it tries to tell and of course ARR's voice.

Dialogues are very crisp and sharp. Makes the movie watchable till the end.

Costumes are very good as its important to show Thalaivar in some never seen before costumes which suits his style.

Things which could have been better:

The climax clearly shows the hurry in which the team worked in order to release it on Thalaivar's Birthday. It is good but the scene has some poor MGR period's graphics and stunts which almost takes us to tollywood.

BGM - Though it is good at some points, it clearly shows the BGM to has been done in a hurry. ARR could have concentrated more on BGM. It let down some scenes.

Anushka has scope for acting but she was used merely for glamor and nothing else.

Many characters have no base stories to come up so that we can believe them and some are over-reacting. They change sides quickly without deciding.

Placing of En Mannavaa song is almost like a normal typical commercial movie where you pack 1-2 songs unnecessarily.

If not for the climax, My Rating will be 7/10.

Watch it for our Thalaivar!

Lingaa (Rajini), a happy go-getter lives out of petty thefts. He is in fact the grandson of Raja Lingeswara, the King of Gadwal Sansthan. Lingaa is traced by Journalist Lakshmi (Anushka) who wants him to open the old Shiva temple in her drought stricken Singanoor village. But MLA Naga Bhushanam (Jagapathi Babu) has vested interests in the dam to be constructed in Singanoor. So, why did Lingaa come to the village and how is he connected to the prestigious Singanoor dam initiated by his grandfather Raja Lingeswara forms the plot of the story. Rajinikanth: The Superstar is always a charmer and so is he in this film as well. He was an absolute entertainer in the first half. He was as usually elegant and majestic in the Raja Lingeswara role and indeed lived in the character. His one-liners and animated fights, especially the train fight in the second half was the real stunner. But the fans always expect more from the Superstar and that unique Rajini magic is missing in this film.

Anushka: One should wonder how she can be so pretty with each growing year. But somehow, she did not suit Rajini in the film.

Sonakshi Sinha: We know she is a lucky charm in the North but now she earned respect down South as well with Lingaa. She was very impressive as the village belle 'Bharati' and struck a decent chemistry with the Superstar in the song as well.

Jagapathi Babu: This manly star was the name sake villain in the film. If you are expecting a 'Legend or PNLJ' JB then we are sorry you might end up disappointed.

Santhanam & his associate comedy gang: They were indeed successful in entertaining, especially in the first half.

Brahmanandam: The special cameo by Brahmi was in fact the biggest disappointment. The rest of the cast especially the British actors did an impressive job. Lingaa is a one-time watch and that too for Rajinikanth. All the hard core Thalaiva fans, hold your excitement for his next film.

Watched Lingaa!! Well, the first 20 minutes was really unbearable, after which some respite, came with the nicely done slow motion fight scene on top of moving train. Though the movie is watchable once...it doesn't have the energy of a Padaiyappa, nor it induce pathos like Muthu, and definitely not the style and masala like Shivaji or Robo if one wants to draw a comparison. Can call it an average Rajni movie. One thing very evident through out the movie was clearly the star has aged. I think after this he should accept roles which matches his age like Amithabh does, take for example Sarkar, Baghban or even some thing like Drishyam etc, where the roles demand a more dignified star power.

ARR's music is also nothing to write about. Nor the production quality. In fact I can say the production quality is below average, no single scene looks like it was set in pre-independence era. The Slow motion fight scene is brilliant, looks like cut and pasted from some other movie. May be they outsourced that bit..who knows.